


and it's better than expected

by caelam (Tennciel)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, this is so goddamn self-indulgent and i'm sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-30
Updated: 2014-07-30
Packaged: 2018-02-11 00:14:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2045613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tennciel/pseuds/caelam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kageyama Tobio is continually amazed with his ability to be an asshole.</p><p>(In which it's kind of about college, and kind of about a coffee shop, but mostly it's about volleyball, and all the stupid feelings that come with it.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	and it's better than expected

**Author's Note:**

> i love coffee shop aus and i love college aus so i tried to write both but it ended up as this weird volleyball mess forgive me mother for i have failed
> 
> i've been writing this shit all day i'm so ready to be done with it i'm not proofreading it or anything just take it i am done

Kageyama Tobio is continually amazed with his ability to be an asshole.

By all extents, he shouldn't have ended up in the financial aid office. He _shouldn't,_ because he had a full-ride volleyball scholarship, complete with a dorm, meal plan, and all expenses paid, as long as he stayed on the team as a regular. And with his abilities, that shouldn't have been problem.

Until the volleyball team put him on probation.

("Extended leave," they called it. "Just until you calm down and sort out how to work with us as a team." They might as well have given him a silver plaque that said _Fuck You_ and roundhouse kicked him out the door.)

So now, he was fixing to lose his scholarship—and only hope for higher education, hell knows he wasn't going to pass the entrance exams anywhere else— and be sent spiraling straight down to a future of 50 cent ramen noodles and homelessness, all because he, Kageyama Tobio, was an asshole.

"Next, please," comes a soft voice from inside the office, sounding entirely too sweet and understanding for the humiliation Kageyama was suffering. He trudges through the door, tempted to not even look the guy in the eyes before he realizes that that's something that assholes do, and he's really gotta work on that.

"Hello," said guy says, smiling sweetly and damn, is he even old enough to work here? He looks like a student himself. "You're Kageyama, correct? You made an appointment yesterday."

"Uh, yeah," Kageyama stutters out. Shit, should he have said "yes sir"? It felt weird calling a guy "sir" when he was probably shorter than him and had the disposition and general aura of his mom.

The guy—Sugawara Koushi, head of financial affairs, his nameplate reads— rifles through some papers.

"So," he begins, "you haven't lost your scholarship yet. However, it seems likely—"

Kageyama blanches and swallows. Nothing like the dean of financial affairs telling you your scholarship is as good as gone.

"— so we'll have to look into alternatives. Could you apply for academic interest?"

He's looking at Kageyama so intently and hopefully, and he doesn't have the heart to tell him his actual test scores.

"My grades, they're, uh.....", he looks to the side so he can escape the stupid hopeful gaze that can't yet see Kageyama is going to end up as an absolute and catastrophic failure. The kind that mothers point out to their kids when they pass them on the street and say _Go to school kids, or you'll end up like that._

"They're not gonna win me any scholarships," he finishes lamely.

Sugawara just blinks and nods.

"Well, that's fine, you can still—"

He ruffles through some papers some more, then makes a small 'ah' sound and stops.

"There's a scholarship available for independent, working students. You just have to find a job that pays in this price range per hour—" he points to some numbers on the paper application he just slid across to Kageyama, "and make the argument that you're supporting yourself. If you're getting any kind of dependency from your parents, you're going to have to cut it off."

Kageyama, as embarrassing as it was, didn't have a job before. He had a full-ride scholarship, and got checks from his mom once a month for food and stuff, so why should he need it? The idea of cutting off his mother's gracious supply of money so he could work his ass off at a minimum wage job wasn't appetizing, but neither was getting kicked out of college because he couldn't afford it, so.

"It won't cover the same amount as your scholarship, of course. But if you can combine this with the money you make on the job and survive off the bare minimum, you should be able to continue attending Karasuno University," Sugawara finishes, before sitting back down and smiling with his hands folded in that weird way that teachers and old people do.

"Thank you," Kageyama says, hurridly, shoving the application into his bag and focusing on getting the hell out of there. "Really."

"No problem."

Kageyama doesn't looks back when he slams the door of the financial aid office behind him, but he thinks he hears a soft, "Have a nice day," followed by a "Next, please."

 

Looking for a job was the worst goddamn thing to ever happen to Kageyama in his life. He doesn't want to sign up for jobs that require interviews (read: all of them) because he's not too sure his grouchy disposition and subpar people skills are going to win any interviewers over. He also needs to find a job that pays in a specific price range and gets specific hours a week for the scholarship, which is a pain in the ass to find and even more of a pain in the ass to explain ("Well, I'm only gonna get this job to help with a scholarship and not because I really want to work here, so...").

Not to even mention filling out résumés. "What can you offer to our workforce? Past life experiences?" What the hell, he's 19, what kind of life experiences is he supposed to have. Getting kicked off his collegiate volleyball team? Spending two weeks petsitting his aunt's three cats and accidentally calling the police when one of them started giving birth? (In his defense, she didn't even tell him it was pregnant. Although he's still not sure what he expected the police to do.)

The first place to accept him was some sleazy bar downtown, a job he _really_ didn't want to accept, but was about to swallow his pride and take it for the sake of his future. Then— thank his lucky stars, a coffee shop told him he was hired, a tiny little place outside of the neighboring university of Nekoma. The Cat Café, it was called, which sounded harmless enough. It was a thirty minute drive away from his dorm— but it had the right hours, pay, and he'd sure as hell rather serve coffee than booze. He calls up the store owner, some reject-surfer dude named Ukai, and thanks him before telling him that he won't let him down.

Kageyama had plenty of confidence in his _own_ ability to serve coffee. What'd he'd forgotten about was that he wasn't going to be working alone, which proved to be the worst miscalculation he'd ever made in his short life and made him really wish he'd chosen the booze.

Kageyama learned very quickly that the same problems he has with his volleyball team, (snapping at people, making everyone hate him, being a general asshole, etc.) he has with coworkers, too. He wasn't sure why that wouldn't have occurred to him until he got there.

Kenma was fine. Quiet, a little creepy—he always got the feeling that Kenma was _watching_ him, which was weird in and of itself, but fine. They didn't speak much, and when they did, it was polite. He could handle that much.

But.

Hinata Shouyou was going to be the reason he got stomach ulcers before 25.

Kageyama isn't even sure what it is about the kid that sets him off. If he had to narrow it down, he'd say _everything_. From the way his hair looks like it hasn't seen a brush in the last millennia, to the way he's constantly mixing up drinks and accidentally replacing sugar with salt (seriously, what the fuck) to the way he gets caught up talking to one customer before he even takes their order and ends up holding up the entire line. From the way he's late every morning to the way he snaps back when Kageyama snaps at him, every little bit of it sets him off. He doesn't think he's yelled this much at one specific person since junior high.

"Get a new job," his roomate, Nishinoya, suggests. Noya was one of the few people on the Karasuno team who could stand him, mainly because he's a libero and doesn't have to deal with Kageyama's infamous reckless toss. Kageyama also privately thinks that it's cause they share a room— Noya's not the subtle, low conflict kind of guy who could deal with living with someone he hated for four years, so he puts forth his best effort into getting along with him. He's not complaining, though. If Noya thought of him like the rest of the team did, he'd probably have to switch rooms.

"I can't," Kageyama groans, throwing his head back on the pillow. "Unless I wanna deal with losing _another_ scholarship, I've gotta stay."

"Then you're gonna have to stick it out," Noya says with his stupid shit-eating grin.

Kageyama hates when he's right.

 

The turn around happens on a Wednesday evening— it is, in Kageyama's mind, the beginning of the end (or maybe just the beginning, period.) He's working the same shift as Hinata, who's standing on the other end of the counter and pouting after he messed up yet another drink order even though Kageyama _specifically told him_ it was a _caramel macchiato, jesus christ._

"I'm just tired," Hinata mutters, as if it's going to excuse all his past actions. "My volleyball team had our first practice match today, not that you would care."

Wait, fuck, what.

Kageyama shoots him an incredulous look. "You play volleyball?" he asks.

Hinata gives him a side glance paired with an unreadable expression.

"Yeah, what of it?"

There are a lot of things Kageyama could say to that. He supposes he could start with "Cool, me too," or maybe continue the questions like "What position do you play?" or sound like an asshole and say something resembling "You're probably not even good," (because he can't be, not with that height). However, Kageyama can't decide which of these options is going to make him sound like less of a tool, so he just stands there for a minute without saying anything. It only serves to piss Hinata off.

"Hey, quit staring at me like a dead fish," Hinata snaps, to which Kageyama glares, and a lot of his confidence from a minute ago melts away as he looks little nauseous at the look he's being given. Kageyama snaps his head forward, and Hinata does the same, and silence fills the coffee shop once again.

They're almost at the end of their shift when Kageyama says,"Me, too." Quietly, because he doesn't really know what else to say.

Hinata just squints at him, and Kageyama knows he has no idea what he's talking about.

"I play, too. Volleyball," he clarifies, then coughs awkwardly. He doesn't give Hinata a chance to respond because he's already got their work apron halfway off and is heading out the door. If Hinata says something when it shuts behind him, he doesn't hear it.

But Friday morning, their next shift together, Hinata is ready for him.

"What position do you play? What high school team were you on? Do you still play now? Are you on scholarship? How far did you get in official tournaments? Are you any good?"

Kageyama has to forcibly push him out of the personal space Hinata was very quickly invading.

"One question at a time, dumbass."

Hinata doesn't even snap at him, still leaning forward and positively _beaming_. It's weird, he thinks, how his entire demeanor changes when he talks about volleyball. He takes a deep breath.

"I'm a setter—"

"Hey! That's what Kenma is!"

"—and I played with Aoba Josai—"

"Shit, your team was full of assholes—"

"I'm on the Karasuno team now, sort of—"

"Heyyy! I'm on the Nekoma team! We're rivals!"

" _Would you let me finish?_ " he snaps, finally, and Hinata shrinks back. He doesn't, however, let him finish.

"I'm a middle blocker— don't give me that look— and Kenma's a setter and we've played volleyball together since we were kids. We went to nationals once, but we didn't win. I'm gonna win for sure in college though!" He pauses and gives Kageyama a surprisingly dark look.

"We're gonna beat you fair and square, you know! Especially you, since you're such an asshat at work. Everything's always gotta be your way like the— the king of the coffee shop," he decides, looking extremely proud of himself for that one. "Hey, if you're a setter, you should toss to me sometime during break. Kenma never wants to. I can—" he puffs his chest up just slightly, "hit any toss."

Kageyama snorts, and bites back the retort that threatens to spill out of his mouth ( _I'd rather toss to a brick wall than toss to you_ ). He puffs his chest up comically. "I can hit any toss," he imitates, his voice as overly high as it can go.

"Hey!" Hinata scowls, and punches him in the arm and shit, that actually hurt. Then he grins and uses his hands to flatten his hair down, making his voice dramatically low: "I said it was a _caramel macchiato_ , dumbass!"

Kageyama makes a noncommittal squaking noise that he'll still deny making to this day, and grabs Hinata's stupid tiny little orange head.

It's the most interaction they've had since they started working together, and even though it's nowhere near friendship—it's nowhere near tolerance, really— he can't shake the feeling that it feels like progress.

 

Over the course of the next few weeks, he begrudgingly tells Hinata the whole story of how he got put on probation from the Karasuno team, which Hinata thinks is hilarious ("They think you need to calm down? Isn't _that_ the truth," "Shut up!") and more stories about his high school days. He tells him about Noya, who he apparently knows ("He's awesome! Once, we played a match against his team, and he did this move like ROLLLINGG THUNDER and he went like WHAM! and the ball was like BAKYUUN!"). In turn, Hinata tells him about the Nekoma team, and about Kenma's skills and all their solid receivers and the other middle blocker, named Inuoka, who Hinata apparently thinks is the best thing since sliced bread. They still snap, and they still argue, but they talk too, and it turns Kageyama's days from unbearable to acceptable.

Then one day, Hinata suggests he attends a Nekoma practice.

"You haven't gotten to play, right? Since you've been on probation."

It's true, he hasn't, not real volleyball anyway. There's something unsettling about accepting Hinata's offer— attending a practice for their rival team, maybe, or it could just be playing in a team setting again when that's never really worked out for him in the past. Plus, playing with Hinata. That should speak for itself.

But, Hinata or no Hinata, rivals or no rivals, he really does love volleyball.

"Fine," he says, and Hinata lights up like a christmas tree, "but not just for _you_ , dumbass."

 

Hinata, he quickly learns, is part human and part bird, and one of the most terrifying people he's ever met. Kageyama doesn't even know how he manages to jump so high, but if he had doubts about Hinata being a good middle blocker, they've dissipated now. They're about halfway through practice when Kuro, the captain, who's been watching him frighteningly closely this whole time, suggests they split into two teams and play a mock match. Kenma as the setter on one team, Kageyama as the setter on the other.

Kageyama doesn't know what he's trying to pull, but he decides early on that his team is going to _win_.

However, it doesn't take long for him to slink back into his old way of playing. He hits a couple of decent tosses, but none of them go through, and then he starts subconsciously making them go _faster_ , because they've gotta be fast if they wanna win, duh.

It isn't until he slams a super fast toss that _no one could hit, shit_ that he winces to himself and is clearly reminded why he got kicked off his team in the first place. But then--

Hinata is suddenly there, which is weird as hell because he _definitely_ wasn't a minute ago, and he slams down the ball so fast Kageyama can't even blink before it's there and gone on the other side.

Holy shit. He hit it.

No one moves a muscle.

"DUUUUUDE," Inuoka bursts out, and Hinata stares at his palm, then at Kageyama, then back at his palm.

Kageyama can feel his mouth stretching unconsciously into a huge, ear splitting grin; he's not sure why, but he feels a little light, and it's probably because that was the awesomest thing he's ever done.

Kuro looks pleasantly surprised, and Kenma is watching them both with a weird expression.

They don't manage a spike like that for the rest of the game, but every time Kageyama looks over, Hinata is beaming, and he thinks that it's probably okay.

 

He starts attending Nekoma practices more often. He doesn't really fit in—Nekoma has utmost trust in each other, and they're solid and receive and function like one unit--while Kageyama is just _there_. And it still kind of feels like betrayal to his own team, but.

When he slams out a toss and Hinata flies to go hit it, he takes a look around— from the lights, to Inuoka on the other side blocking as best he can, to Hinata falling back to the earth, beaming like the sun—and it's— nice, he thinks.

 

When Kageyama wakes up one morning excited to attend his goddamn rival team's practice, and goes to his tiny kitchen and makes himself a caramel macchiato just because he knows how, that's how he knows his life is over.

When Kageyama goes to work one day in a terrifyingly good mood, and Hinata's already there, and he makes some wisecrack about Hinata being on time for once— when Hinata laughs, that's how he knows his life is _really_ over. Because when he hears that laugh his stomach betrays him and does tiny little flip flops, and all he can think is, _fuck._

 

He's so caught up in his weird Coffee Shop-Nekoma-Hinata-centric life that he kind of forgets he has his _own_ team.

"Hey," Noya says to him one night. "Daichi wants you back at practice tomorrow."

What.

"What."

Noya kind of laughs. "Dude, it was probation. You didn't think it would be forever, did you?"

He kind of did, but he wasn't going to say that out loud.

"Besides, I've told him that you seem...different, lately. I don't know, happier? He thinks that getting a job did you well."

"Oh," Kageyama says, eloquently.

"So I'll see you tomorrow at practice, then?" Noya asks, then turns to go on his way out to some party or something for his friend Asahi.

"Yeah," Kageyama echoes. "See you tomorrow."

He's not sure why he doesn't feel overjoyed. After all, this is what he wanted from the start. He'll get his scholarship back, he'll get his team back, the financial support from his mother, all of it. Hell, he might be able to afford some real dinner and not McDonalds.

But he keeps thinking that if he goes back to Karasuno, he won't be able to practice with Nekoma anymore, and he won't need the coffee shop job. And he really doesn't want that.

 

The practice the next day goes surprisingly well, and he's not really sure what to do cause he's never worked so easily with these people before. Daichi claps a hand on his shoulder.

"I knew you just needed some time off," he says, sounding inherently proud, as if this was all his doing.

Kageyama gives out tosses that the spikers slam again and again, Tanaka getting more and more worked up with each one that goes through. (They have to restrain him and forcibly put his shirt back on three or four times. He lost count.) Noya flashes him a wink and a thumbs up.

He's not sure why, but it feels a little empty in the gym without Hinata.

"It's good you're back, Kageyama," Daichi says at the group huddle near the end of practice, "'Cause we've got an important practice match coming up." He pauses for emphasis, looking each one of them in the face. "It's against our rivals, Nekoma."

Oh, _shit._

 

Kageyama doesn't mention his probation ending to Hinata. He doesn't quit his job at the coffee shop yet either, even though he received a call from Sugawara at financial aid that the scholarship was no longer necessary and he could quit the job if he so pleased. He knows, logically, he should quit— he doesn't need the job and his grades have suffered since he started working and practicing all the time (not that they were great, in the first place.) He just can't bring himself to, yet.

Hinata knows about the practice match of course— he keeps talking about how excited he is to meet the people Kageyama has told him about and makes him pinky swear to be there to watch. ("Of course I'll be there, stupid," he says, but he doesn't tell him why.)

He knows that he's only hurting himself by keeping all this secret, but he looks at Hinata's sunny, pouty, stupid face and his heart does that sunny, pouty, stupid thing and all the words die on his throat.

The day of the practice match, though, when the entire Nekoma team is staring at him scandalized from the other side of the net, he really wishes he'd said something.

Kageyama wants to win. Nobody comes to a match to lose, and that's why he warns Daichi of the tricks up Nekoma's sleeve that he's learned from their practices. He tells the whole team of each player's strongest weaknesses, including Hinata, and ignores the weird feeling of betrayal in his stomach because what the hell, it wasn't ever even his team.

The practice match is over quickly, and to someone in the audience, Karasuno must look like geniuses or at least always prepared, cause every single secret weapon of Nekoma's doesn't work. They win by a landslide.

But for the people on the court, everyone knows why Karasuno won.

His teammates rejoice and high five and slap him on the shoulder, and he tries to join in, but he can feel Kenma's sharp gaze and Hinata's pissed glare boring into his back. It distracts him from celebrating.

He hasn't even made it out the gym yet when Hinata grabs him by the shirt collar and drags him out the side door and into the courtyard next to it.

"What the hell," he snaps.

"What do you mean, what the hell?" answers Kageyama, trying to keep his voice even and not angry or confused or—anything, really. Even though he knows exactly what _what the hell_ is referring to.

Hinata makes a frustrated noise.

"Were you planning this from the very beginning? Did you get that job at the place me and Kenma worked so you could— attend our practices? Figure out our secrets? Get your team one point ahead in this stupid— this stupid _school rivalry_?"

Wait.

"No, wait, Hinata, that's not—"

"And to think!" Hinata snaps. "To think I actually believed you! Hell, I actually _liked_ you! You—" and Hinata runs his fingers through his hair and continues to make frustrated noises. "I knew you were an asshole from the start. I shoulda stuck with my gut."

"Woah, woah, we're not on the same page here. It was all true, Hinata, everything I told you at work and everything I've told you until—until two weeks ago, I guess. Was true."

Hinata snorts. "Right, because two weeks ago you realized it was prime time to morph back into the Darth Lord and share all the secrets you gained from us with your underlings, right?"

"No!" Kageyama snaps. And god, he must have sounded desperate or like a real idiot, because Hinata finally looks at him and raises an eyebrow.

"I didn't— I didn't tell them anything about your team until today, alright? Right before the match. Because, I dunno, it's a match. And I wanted to win. It was stupid, I know. Sorry."

Hinata still doesn't look very impressed, but gestures for him to continue. He takes a deep breath.

"Two weeks ago, I was taken off probation. And I didn't tell you, because— I got my scholarship back, which means I'd quit the job at the coffee shop, and I'd have to stop coming to Nekoma practices. And I— I wasn't ready yet—to—" Kageyama cannot believe the words that are coming out of his own mouth. Even his ears are burning. "I wasn't ready yet to stop talking to you."

Hinata just blinks at him, once, twice. Really slowly. And then he crosses his arms.

"You're an idiot," he says.

" _What?_ "

"Just because you quit your job doesn't mean we have to stop talking to each other! I mean, what the hell, we're _friends_ , Kageyama. At least, I thought we were."

"And—!" Hinata continues, "Just cause you got back on your old team doesn't mean you have to stop coming to Nekoma practices!"

"Yeah it does! We're rivals, that's weird!" snaps Kageyama.

Hinata stomps his foot on the ground and it kind of makes him seem like a petulant child. "I don't _care_ about that! When I hit one of your tosses, it's awesome, right? I love that! I don't care about teams or rivals or whatever-the-shit! I want to play volleyball with _you_ , Kageyama!"

Oh. Well.

That certainly sounded like a marriage proposal in sports terms.

Kageyama kind of makes a kind of quiet elephant noise and stares at him. He's not really sure what to say, so he does the only thing he can think of to do at the moment-- he leans down (and goddamn him for being so short) and kisses him.

Kageyama was never really a "dating" type of person, but he had kissed people before. Like, one and a half times. This was different.

There wasn't any lights or fireworks or "drowning in love xoxo" type of stuff. It was just a kiss, but somehow it was different, and his palms were clammy and kind of shaking against Hinata's shoulders and he really hoped he couldn't feel that.

When they pull back, Hinata just stares at him, eyes impossibly wide and face a little red and expression kind of unreadable.

"What the hell," he says.

And Kageyama thinks about how all of this mess started, all the way from volleyball to Sugawara in the financial aid office, to the Cat Café and Kenma with the quiet, level looks and more goddamn salty coffees than he can count. From practices with the dumbass kid who can fly and the light feeling he gets when one of those super fast tosses get spiked, to Noya and Daichi and Tanaka who can't keep his shirt on, and to right now, to him, Kageyama Tobio, Grade A Asshole who was more alive and more confused than ever.

"Yeah," he echoes. "What the hell."

And Hinata stands up on his tiptoes and kisses him again.

 

 

In the end, he doesn't quit the job at the coffee shop. (What can he say, it grew on him. Besides, with the extra money he gets from it and his mom combined, he can afford to buy real food and new video games for Hinata to play when he comes over, so--it's worth it.)

They pose the idea to Kuro and Daichi, who both agree surprisingly easily, all things considering, to have joint practice to better both teams once a week. So now every Friday, Karasuno and Nekoma play volleyball together, and they always let Kageyama and Hinata be on the same team, even though everyone else switches.

And sometimes, outside of work and outside of volleyball, Kageyama and Hinata will get together, and go to the park, or go see a movie, or drive down to the ocean, making fun of each other the whole time. And when Noya leaves to go to a party, Hinata will come over, and they'll play video games and watch shitty horror movies and hold hands on the couch, while Hinata insists he is _not_ scared, no way in _hell_ (he's shaking.) And in the morning, when Kageyama wakes up first, he'll get up and make them two caramel macchiatos and it's—

It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn close.

**Author's Note:**

> i am not in college and do not play volleyball and have never worked at a coffee shop so this probably isn't how this stuff works in real life but let's pretend it is xoxo
> 
> hinata is on nekoma because i wanted them to be on different teams lmao  
> also if you have a plausible reason for suga working financial aid while everyone else is playing volleyball let me know because i don't
> 
> haikyuu is consuming me and i can't believe i wrote this but it was a blast and i hope you had fun reading it too B)


End file.
